User:Seiyria

This page is related to Summer of Code 2011

See the list of Summer of Code 2011 Ideas

This is a Summer of Code 2011 student page

Project: SoC Ideas Eclipse Plugin2011

Description

Seiyria - Project description

Work on the Eclipse plugin? [todo]

IRC

Seiyria

Proposal Summary

[todo]

Timeline

[todo]

Patches and commits

No one at this moment of time.

Questionnaire

Basics

Write a small introduction to yourself.
My name is Kyle Kemp, I'm a first year student at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, full time computer science major, emphasizing in software engineering. At my university, I'm a part of a game development club, a gaming club (rpg/board games/etc), and I turn 19 this summer. Ive been doing programming-related work since I was a freshman in high school.

1.2) State your preferred email address.
imnothere199@gmail.com

1.3) If you have chosen a nick for IRC and Wesnoth forums, what is it?
IRC: Seiyria
Wesnoth forums: Seiyria
Wesnoth wiki: Seiyria
GNA: not chosen yet

1.4) Why do you want to participate in summer of code?
All I've really ever done are my personal projects (of which the list is growing very large), but I've never worked in a commercial environment with an actual project. My game development club is starting to flesh out ideas for *something,* which will at least give me some experience.

1.5) What are you studying, subject, level and school?
Software engineering (computer science), first year student at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

1.6) If you have contributed any patches to Wesnoth, please list them below. You can also list patches that have been submitted but not committed yet and patches that have not been specifically written for Wesnoth. If you have gained commit access to our SVN (during the evaluation period or earlier) please state so.

I have not committed anything.

Experience

I've been working with Java for around two years now, and before that I worked with a C-like language called Dream Maker (http://www.byond.com/developer/) for three years. In addition, I've worked with, but am not much experience with: C++, C, Python, JavaScript (as an addon to Java via ScriptEngineManager, and as a website addon via jQuery), PHP. I have also worked with MySQL extensively via Java, PHP, and Dream Maker.

2.1) What programs/software have you worked on before?
Most of the following are my own personal projects (and most of the projects aren't well explained, I apologize):
http://code.google.com/p/ircrpgbot/ -- this is an IRC RPG-esque bot that I started when I wanted to have some form of roleplay/final fantasy-esque battles on IRC.
http://code.google.com/p/idlemaster/ -- this is another IRC bot, but it's aimed more towards idling. I didn't like what IdleRPG has to offer, so I made my own spin of it, and those who "played" it said they much preferred it.
http://code.google.com/p/kellyirc/ -- this is my own spin on an IRC client. It's nowhere near done, but it is the only of my projects that has had active commits from other people (albeit, that has slowed down)
http://code.google.com/p/mantrarpg/ -- this is one of my RPGs-in-creation (made with BYOND). Again, nowhere near done, but it is something I have done.
http://code.google.com/p/vivio/ -- another IRC bot, this one is actually meant to be useful. I made it so people can submit modules to me, and they can be included in the bot. I have had successful contributions, but this was before it was moved to google code, and most of the author tags should still be preserved.
http://code.google.com/p/thesaloon/ -- this is another BYOND project I'm involved in. It's just a simple chatroom, but it's something I worked on collaboratively with others.
I have also created a full-length platformer for up to three people, called Doomed Dreams (http://www.byond.com/hub/divinetraveller/doomeddreams), the source is available as zip (http://www.byond.com/members/DivineTraveller/files/pixel-movement_src.zip), but I don't have it stored as a google code project, sorry.

I have also worked on a project called CoApp (http://coapp.org/), however I did very minimal work, and then school started to take over.

As you may be able to see, I really like IRC-based projects. They allow me to get a lot of work done as a programmer, without needing graphics (which I really struggle with in many aspects).

2.2) Have you developed software in a team environment before? (As opposed to hacking on something on your own)
Yes.

2.3) Have you participated to the Google Summer of Code before? As a mentor or a student? In what project? Were you successful? If not, why?
No, this will be my first year if accepted.

2.4) Open Source

2.4.1) Are you already involved with any open source development projects? If yes, please describe the project and the scope of your involvement.
If any of the above google code projects count, then yes. Otherwise, not really. This would be my first "real" project.

2.5) Gaming experience - Are you a gamer?
Yes.

2.5.1) What type of gamer are you?
An all-around gamer?

2.5.2) What type of games?
RPG is by far my favorite, however, I also like strategy, FPS styled games, platformers, sandbox games, roguelikes.. Just about anything under the sun.

2.5.3) What type of opponents do you prefer?
I prefer opponents that can give me a challenge, but not be too obscenely difficult.

2.5.4) Are you more interested in story or gameplay?
Truthfully, this is a difficult decision. I really like the story in some RPG games (such that I cheat to get levels done, so I don't have to grind out levels, just so I can progress the story), but I also get drawn in by interesting gameplay mechanics.

2.5.5) Have you played Wesnoth? If so, tell us roughly for how long and whether you lean towards single player or multiplayer. We do not plan to favor Wesnoth players as such, but some particular projects require a good feeling for the game which is hard to get without having played intensively.
Yes, I have. I don't remember how long I've played it for, but I played it very extensively last summer, and I have played it for some time before that, though the time frame is very iffy in my mind (I can remember playing ~3 years ago in a class). I definitely lean more towards multiplayer, because I like being able to team with friends, or play against other humans -- some of my friends give me more difficult challenges. However, I like single player for scenarios, or, back in my high school career, in the middle of classes when I needed something to do.

Communication skills

3.1) Though most of our developers are not native English speakers, English is the project's working language. Describe your fluency level in written English.
I live in the USA, so I have strong english skills, though my writing is sometimes confusing and trails off -- I do much better with visual explanation.

3.2) Are you good at interacting with other players? Our developer community is friendly, but the player community can be a bit rough.
Yes. For four years, I ran an RPG (not listed above), and I had to constantly communicate with players and deal with positive/negative feedback. Also, with any of my given IRC projects, I have to communicate with just about everyone.

3.3) Do you give constructive advice?
Yes, but as stated above, it can be misleading at times.

3.4) Do you receive advice well?
Yes.

3.5) Are you good at sorting useful criticisms from useless ones?
I like to think so, but I really don't know.

Project

4.1) Did you select a project from our list? If that is the case, what project did you select? What do you want to especially concentrate on?
Yes. I actually had three in mind: the Eclipse plugin, the Spritesheet idea, and the content manager. I prefer the Eclipse plugin, mostly because Java is what I'm most comfortable with, and I feel like I would get more work done.

4.2) If you have invented your own project, please describe the project and the scope.

4.3) Why did you choose this project?
Wesnoth is a fun game, and I know more about it than any of the other projects on the list.

4.4) Include an estimated timeline for your work on the project. Don't forget to mention special things like "I booked holidays between A and B" and "I got an exam at ABC and won't be doing much then".
My summer is completely empty as of now.

4.5) Include as much technical detail about your implementation as you can
[todo]

4.6) What do you expect to gain from this project?
More knowledge on collaboration-based working, more experience in a professional environment.

4.7) What would make you stay in the Wesnoth community after the conclusion of SOC?
Having time during the school year.

Practical considerations

[todo]

5.1) Are you familiar with any of the following tools or languages?

* Subversion (used for all commits)
Yes. I have used commandline svn, tortoisesvn, and a svn plugin on eclipse.
* C++ (language used for all the normal source code)
Somewhat.
* Python (optional, mainly used for tools)
I have used it, but not much.
* build environments (eg cmake/autotools/scons)
I have used make on my linux OS, no others.
* WML (the wesnoth specific scenario language)
Not at all.
* Lua (used in combination with WML to create scenarios)
I have used Lua when I ran my own World of Warcraft server, to script dungeons (but not with WML). 5.2) Which tools do you normally use for development? Why do you use them?
Eclipse - it's my favorite IDE, it simplifies my work, and offers a lot of solutions for my problems.
Notepad++ - very useful for things like PHP, and I use it for Java when I'm working on small projects -- the interface is nice and easy to use.
gEdit/kate -- when I'm on school computers, I usually prefer to use one of these two tools.

5.3) What programming languages are you fluent in?
Java, Dream Maker

5.4) What spoken languages are you fluent in?
English, some french

5.5) At what hours are you awake and when will you be able to be in IRC (please specify in UTC)
UTC-6 is my timezone, sometimes I'm awake as early as 7 am, to as late as 2 am (usually my limit), though times fluctuate in there.

5.6) Would you mind talking with your mentor on telephone / internet phone? We would like to have a backup way for communications for the case that somehow emails and IRC do fail.
I have no problems with that.